EARLIER: TAMWORTH residents were faced with a dramatic prelude to summer yesterday as fire ravaged properties and threatened homes at Moore Creek.

Scores of firefighters were last night working to control the blaze, which had burnt out more than 30 hectares of land north of the city by mid-afternoon.

Three fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter worked throughout the evening to halt the path of the fire as it continued its way towards the hills.

In a day of high drama, a thick band of smoke blanketed much of the region, as smaller fires continued to burn.

Firefighters are already predicting little relief, with temperatures set to skyrocket to 36 degrees today.

There’s very little humidity and north-westerly winds about.

“It (yesterday’s fire) is indicative of how dry the conditions are and the ability for fires to start, escape and spread rapidly,” Rural Fire Service Inspector Steve Prior said.

“It makes our containment strategies very difficult to implement.”

Inspector Prior said the cause of the blaze was undetermined but while no property was destroyed, homes were “most definitely threatened.”

“The homes up the hill and the ones in the lower part came under threat but that threat was mitigated by the efforts of firefighters on the scene,” he said.

“Tamworth Precision Excavations were working in the area with a grader and a water car and offered that up and started assisting us as soon as the fire kicked off. It was very generous and community-minded. We’ve been getting very good intelligence coming from the bomber pilots on the other side of the hill and they were telling us what’s happening and giving us an eye-in-the- sky look to help alter our strategies.”

With the fire danger predicted to be very high over the weekend Inspector Prior reminded locals to review their bushfire danger plans.